The PM made a big deal about the need to ensure treatments are evaluated and backed by good evidence in this widely-reported speech at St Vincent’s Institute for Medical Research in Melbourne last Friday.
He said: “ Patients need treatments, technologies, and procedures for which there is evidence from research that these are safe and effective. [...]
Dr Patrick Bolton, Vice President, Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association, has some further interesting points to make on surgical safety:
“The recent study which showed that the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist reduced postoperative complications by an average of 36% and resulted in a fall in the total in-hospital death rate from 1.5% to 0.8% takes one [...]
Professor Guy Maddern, professor of surgery at the University of Adelaide, has sent in the following comment re previous posts on whether Australian hospitals should implement the WHO checklist to improve surgical safety:
“Surgery has over many years increased its range of checklists to help ensure patient safety and efficiency. Surgical instrument counts, pre-admission check lists [...]
Professor Chris Baggoley, Chief Executive, Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare, has sent in the following comment re the recent post on whether Australian hospitals should be implementing the WHO surgical safety checklist to reduce deaths and complications associated with surgery:
“The Commission is very keen to work with (and has spoken to) the [...]
Should Australian hospitals be required to implement the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist which has been shown to reduce post operative deaths and complications?
The UK National Patient Safety Agency has issued an alert requiring all healthcare organisations in England and Wales to implement the checklist (adapted for England and Wales) for every patient undergoing a surgical [...]
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